Barcelona, French Alpine Town to Host ’92 Olympics

Barcelona, Spain, will host the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the French Alps town of Albertville will be the site of that year’s Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee announced today in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The committee gave Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city, the nod to host the Summer Games over five rivals, with Paris running a distant second. The victory came on the third of a possible six rounds of voting.

For Albertville, a town of 30,000 in the Savoy Alps of eastern France, the triumph came on the fifth of seven possible ballots. Sofia, Bulgaria, a stretch runner in the long and costly race, was second among the seven bidders.

Barcelona, the hometown of Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, had unsuccessfully bid three previous times for the Games, but Mayor Pasquale Maragall said the wait was worth it.

“We feel extremely happy and proud to receive this nomination,” Maragall said. “For 34 years, we have been aiming toward this moment.”

First Time in Spain

Maragall said the key to Barcelona’s victory was the lack of a Spanish host for any previous Olympics.

This was the first Olympic bid by Albertville, a low-lying town surrounded by spectacular ski areas. Michel Barnier, head of the organizing committee, said several factors helped win the hearts and minds of the majority of the 85 IOC members who voted.

“‘We had the beauty of the region, he said. “And we also had the presence of Jean-Claude Killy.”

Killy, a triple gold-medalist in the 1968 Winter Games at Grenoble, France, was vice president of the organizing committee. He said today’s victory was much different than winning on the slopes.

“I skied in Grenoble basically for myself. If I failed, the failure was my responsibility,” Killy said. “For five years, we have acted for the Savoy--for millions of people--and it was their victory today.”

Barcelona finished ahead of Paris; Amsterdam; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Brisbane, Australia, and Birmingham, England.

Flag-Waving Celebration

At Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya, thousands of people waved Catalonian flags, embraced, shouted and shot firecrackers in the air after hearing the announcement of the city’s winning bid broadcast on a giant video screen.

Hopefuls for the Winter Olympics included Anchorage, Alaska; Falun, Sweden; Berchtesgaden, West Germany; Lillehammer, Norway; Sofia, and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

The little Alpine town of Albertville exploded with joy today on hearing that its candidacy had been successful. Loudspeaker cars toured the city blaring out the news. People poured into the streets, many embracing, and spontaneously started heading for City Hall, where bottles of champagne were uncorked.

The Winter Games in Albertville will be the 16th and will be the last held in the same year as the Summer Games. The IOC decided earlier this week that beginning in 1994, it will stage the winter Olympics two years before the Summer Games.